Playing to a Crowd

Getting a Gig

After a few days of performing for tips, Lanette hits Level 2 of the singer career. No matter which of the new professions you're working with, Level 2 is where you'll start making a name for yourself. It's time to go from the sidewalk to the stage!

A special map tag appears in map view, which you can see on the screenshot here. It's an orange circle with nothing but a single Sim's head in it. This tag points to the proprietor of a venue, and is the single most important Sim you're going to interact with for your career. The first proprietor is always at the park, and Lanette is near the one in this instance of Starlight Shores. She heads over to Carl McMurphy and strikes up a conversation.

Old Carl isn't going to let just anyone up on his stage, even if it is in the middle of a park. He requires an audition, but that's not Lanette's first interaction. Like everything else in The Sims 3, it's all about socialization, and she's been practicing her Charisma skill at night, so it's time to put it to use.

She talks up Carl and works their relationship meter to about +10% before actually asking for the audition. If was earlier in the day, her mood meters would be higher too, as she'll give her best performances and auditions when she's in the green. However, it's getting late as you might notice from the screenshots, and proprietors aren't available at night.

Lanette uses her charms, then the "Audition for a Singer Gig" command. She auditions with a Sing-A-Gram, which is strangely effective: Carl accepts her audition and books her! She can view her list of gigs by going to the Career Tab, then clicking the "Gig Schedule" button. Alternately, she can simply mouse over the map marker of the venue in question. Carl wants her back here at the park tomorrow at 8:30pm, which means she'll need to stay up just a bit extra tonight or take a nap tomorrow to have enough energy for the gig.

Playing the Gig

The first time you get a gig, it's a one-shot deal. Sims in bad moods or who are just unlucky have a chance of bombing on stage, and if the audience hates the performance enough, the proprietor won't re-sign you. We're looking for something more stable and secure though, so Lanette is going to make sure her vocal chords are ready to go by keeping her mood nice and high.

After a nap, she arrives at the park two hours before the gig is scheduled to start. You can start any concert up to two hours prior, and as you're about to see, it's usually best to start a bit early. Lanette walks over to the stage, then interacts with it and gets a single branched command on the pie menu: "Set Up the Stage..." Note that if you select any of the options from that, you will commit to the performance. Don't select anything until you know you're ready to perform!

The "Set Up the Stage..." command breaks down into three other commands. First is "Use a Previously Saved Setup," which won't help Lanette since she doesn't have any yet. One is "Create a Custom Setup," which would be awesome, except for the fact that she's poor and can't afford too many stage props yet. She can set up a stage later, once she makes it big. For now, Lanette chooses the third option, "Use the Venue's Setup." It's usually better than nothing, literally: if she just tried to Create a Custom Setup, she'd have to perform on an empty stage.

Strangely, when Lanette chooses "Use the Venue's Setup," absolutely nothing pops up on stage. Props are important to the overall grade, but the Sim's performance is far more important. She won't get an excellent, stellar review, but even with an empty stage, she can probably perform well enough to the people who come out to the park.

Lanette starts to perform, and the audience will gravitate toward her. Now, because this is a profession, rather than a job, it requires interaction from you to succeed. As a singer, you give commands (either by interacting with the stage or the singer herself) on what song to sing. When each song ends, she can talk to the audience, or select the next song.

The AI will perform the show for you if you happen to be controlling another Sim at the same time, but you'll want to do it yourself for maximum control. You are not able to queue commands here as you usually can, so you'll need to keep a close eye on your Sim to make sure she's doing exactly what you want her to do.

Properly interacting with the audience is important for their overall impression of you, which you can see throughout the show. In this screenshot, you can see a Sim in the foreground, Natasha Gooder, and she's got a blue plus-sign next to her head. This means Natasha is liking what she's hearing from Lanette (or "Lunar Eclipse" at the moment), and it adds in to the overall grade toward the end.

It can work the other way too: if you see a red minus-sign, the audience is less happy at the way things are turning out. You can see a screenshot below of what happens when poor Lanette tries to tell a joke between songs. The fans are pretty much the polar opposite of pleased: Singers are at a disadvantage when it comes to audience interaction because they expect to hear singing, not witty banter. Magicians and acrobats have a better chance of getting positive results from interacting with the audience, but they still shouldn't do it too often.

Lanette only knows two songs at the moment, and magicians and acrobats have similar problems with lean routines this early in their careers as well. However, the audience will not penalize you for repeats. Lanette can in fact just go with one song for the concert, which will not adversely affect her. (Could you imagine the results in real-life if people showed up to a Jimmy Buffett concert and just got "Cheeseburger in Paradise" for three straight hours?) It's probably best to at least alternate songs for your own sanity, but your Sims don't mind.

At 11:30pm, she'll automatically conclude the show by finishing whatever her current song is and taking a bow. Lanette could have ended the show any time between songs, but finishing too early will obviously just upset the audience. It's always best to let your performers finish on their own: it's impossible to go too long, and the Sim will always correctly close the show at the proper time. The only reason you'd ever want to end early is if there's an emergency, such as a spouce giving birth or something, that requires that Sim's immediate attention.

Once the show is over, Lanette gets feedback from the "push notification" in the top-right corner of the screen in the talk (fourth) tab. Here, you can see that the audience really liked her, and the rating could have been much higher if she hadn't tried to pull a Dane Cook in the middle of her act.

If the performance is exceptional, the proprietor may invite you back and make it a "steady" gig, which means it will always be available to you every week on the same day at the same time. Skipping booked gigs will upset the proprietor and may make him unbook you, but you can always cancel a gig on your own through your cell phone without penalty. This is useful as you climb the rankings, as smaller gigs (like in the park) may not make you enough money to warrant your attention.

Lanette didn't have such luck though: Carl didn't offer her a steady gig. That doesn't mean she's out of luck, however. Lanette just needs to keep auditioning Carl for more one-shot gigs and work on her singing career experience, and she'll be booked steadily one day!